Stockholm - Progress has been made in reducing the production of poppy used to make opium and heroin in Afghanistan, the head of the US government's Office of National Drug Control Policy said Tuesday in Stockholm.

John P Walters said that while conditions in Afghanistan were "very difficult" there had been signs of progress in reducing poppy fields in parts of the country where security had improved including in the north and east.

Washington, Sept 9 : Senior members of the United States Congress have been contacted by the Bush administration to initiate the process to endorse the 123 Agreement.

US State Department spokesperson McCormack said that senior members of Congress including Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Howard Berman and Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator Joseph Biden have been contacted to endorse the deal.

Washington, Sept. 9 : The Bush administration has decided to adopt a low-key approach to the recent conflict between Russia and Georgia.

According to the Washington Post, this strategy is premised on working jointly with European allies, and on avoiding the sort of unilateral U. S. military threats that would scare them off.

Washington, Sept. 9 : Republican presidential nominee John McCain has got the support of independent voters whom he courted so aggressively at last week''s convention, and now holds a healthy lead over his Democratic rival Barack Obama.

A Gallup Poll to be released Tuesday shows that McCain''s backing among independent voters has jumped 12 percentage points in recent days, providing welcome news for a Republican candidate.

According to the Washington Post, McCain has somehow satisfied both independents and conservatives.

Washington, Sept 9 : Virginia Tech researchers have created a new class of stable fullerene molecules by replacing a carbon atom with nitrogen in the all-carbon structure.

Chemistry Professor Harry Dorn says that this work may pave the way for molecular semiconductors and quantum computing applications.

Fullerenes are a family of carbon allotropes, molecules composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, tube, or plane.

In a previous study, Dorn had devised a way to play with fullerenes, and displayed how to put other atoms inside an 80-atom molecule.

Anchorage, Sept. 9 : It turns out that Alaska Governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

According to the Washington Post, Palin also charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions.

Her husband, Todd, billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he made on official business for his wife.